This November marks the 20th anniversary of Josh Pyke's debut EP, 'Feeding The Wolves', which launched the singer-songwriter onto a journey of international touring and seven studio albums – all of which have debuted in the ARIA Albums Top 10 chart.
Nominated for Best Pop Release at 2006 ARIA Awards with EP track 'Middle Of The Hill' lodging at #19 on the Hottest 100 count, Pyke will celebrate the milestone with a national run of shows this November.
"FTW is 20 years old! To celebrate, I will be revisiting the tracks and telling stories about how they came to be," posted Josh.
Ahead of those shows, Josh will travel to Brisbane for BIGSOUND next week as one of the conference speakers, joining the panel Syncing It Right – Choosing The Perfect Music In Real Time.
Here, he recounts some memories from when he recorded and toured 'Feeding The Wolves'.
1: Seeing 'Feeding The Wolves' as a window display at Fish Records in Newtown
I'd been working at Fish Records for the last few years before the EP came out, so to see my record up in the front window felt like things were finally moving forward for me musically.2: This mini album led to me being signed to Island Records in the UK and Europe
The A&R representative flew out from the UK to see a show and signed me the same week. From there I was travelling back and forth between the UK and Oz playing shows and festivals like Glastonbury, and doing a residency at a small club in Camden. It was a wild time.3: Playing Sydney Big Day Out
I feel so fortunate to have played the legendary BDO a couple of times, but that first time was amazing. I was playing on a small stage in the middle of the day and wondered if anyone would show up at all.As I started to play the crowd started pouring in and by the end, the stage was packed. About 40 minutes later I found out that 'Middle Of The Hill' had made it into the Hottest 100, and I also jumped in a car after my Sydney BDO set and drove to Queensland to start a tour back down the east coast. I pretty much put my head down and toured for the next ten years straight.
4: My tri-state residency in Australia
We embarked on a pretty ambitious plan to do three shows a week in three different states for a month. So I'd do Wednesday in Melbourne, Thursday in Brisbane or Adelaide and Friday in Sydney.It was expensive and hectic, but by the end of the month all the shows were selling out and I felt like I was building a really authentic, core fab base that I'm grateful to say is still with me today.
Josh Pyke will be part of BIGSOUND's Syncing It Right – Choosing The Perfect Music In Real Time panel at The Fortitude Music Hall (Brisbane) on 4 September.
Josh Pyke 2025 Tour Dates
Sat 1 Nov - City Recital Hall (Sydney)Thu 6 Nov - The Princess Theatre (Brisbane)* sold out
Fri 7 Nov - Melbourne Recital Centre
Fri 14 Nov - The Gov (Adelaide)
Sat 15 Nov - The Rechabite (Perth)* early show sold out
Sat 15 Nov - The Rechabite (Perth)* late show
